WHO Global centre for Traditional medicine in India

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has signed an agreement with the  government of India to set up a WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The Agreement was signed on 25 March 2022 in Geneva by the Secretary, Ministry of Ayush Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, and Director General, WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

• The Government of India will invest $250 million in the center .

• The primary objective of GCTM is to harness the potential of traditional medicine from across the world through modern science and technology and improve overall health of the communities’ world over. 

• The WHO centre will be under the Ministry of AYUSH. 

• It is the only such centre on traditional medicine  of WHO in the world.

Traditional Medicine 

• According to the WHO, Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.

AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy)

• The Ministry of AYUSH was set up on the 9th of November 2014 to revive  the knowledge of traditional Indian systems of medicine. 

• It focuses on education and research in the fields of Ayurveda, Yoga Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy. 

• Minister of AYUSH: Sarbananda Sonowal

World Health Organisation (WHO)

• The World Health Organisation is a specialised agency of the United Nations which was founded on 7 April, 1948.

• Every year 7 April is celebrated as “World Health Day”.

• Headquarters of WHO : Geneva, Switzerland 

• Director General of WHO :  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus  of Ethiopia .

• He was elected as WHO director General  in 2017 and later re-elected in 2022 for a period of 5 years.